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Kokomo

And while that song runs through my head incessantly, here I am (with my family) on vacation in the Village of Islamorada (Lower Matecumbe Key, to be specific — the town spans several of the Florida Keys). Some touristy brochure I found said that “Islamorada” means “island home” in Spanish, but that’s bull. Even someone with an elementary knowledge of Spanish could tell you that it means “purple island.” Other brochures agree.

Anyway, we’re here in Purple Island, pretty much relaxing. The vacation home we’re staying in is fairly nice; it’s two stories, but the first story (which is where I’m situated at the moment) is a joke. The good stuff, including the bigger kitchen, the bigger living room, more bedrooms, a balcony, and the bigger TV, is upstairs. If you want to have a virtual look-see, the house has its own domain name: islamoradavacationhome.com.

We haven’t done much since arriving here midday yesterday. My uncle and my grandparents brought their boats, so we went out on those (the house is on a canal that leads into the ocean). There’s a lighthouse in view in the distance. I’m hoping we can go out there so I can get some good pictures. I stupid, stupid, stupidly forgot my USB cable, so my pictures have to stay on my camera till I get home. Oh well. I guess that ensures that only the best 81 pictures come home.

Interestingly to those who do not know it, the Keys are connected by a single road, U.S. 1. Since there aren’t any major roads that intersect with U.S. 1 here (being an island chain and all), the mile markers on the highway are used as landmarks (Mile 0 being at the end of the Keys in Key West). Because most tourist attractions and businesses are along the main highway, this, along with an “Oceanside”/”Bayside” indication, is sufficient to serve as an address in the Keys. On the billboards, instead of an address or intersection, you’ll see “Mile Marker 88, Bayside” or “Mile Marker 72.5, Oceanside.”

And no, I haven’t found Kokomo yet, but there’s a whole mess of islands down here. When you think of the Florida Keys, you think of all these islands all nice in a line, connected by a road, but there are more keys than those. Many are north of here, in the bay that the main chain creates. When you’ve got a bunch of islands, you tend to run out of good ideas for names. As a result, a lot of dots on the map will have names like Carl Ross Key, the Bob Allen Keys, End Key, Dead Terrapin Key, West Key (not to be confused with Key West), No Name Key, Lignumvitae Key (“lignum vitae” means “wood of life” in Latin), Frank Key, Murray Key, Joe Kemp Key, Bradley Key (makes you wonder if people name the islands after themselves), and (I wish I were kidding) the adjacent islands of Johnson Key and Dildo Key.

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